Mrs J D Stawell v Royal Naval Benevolent Trust — 2020

Mrs J D Stawell worked as a registered general nurse at Pembroke House from 28 February 2012 until 27 August 2018. The dispute arose after a July 2018 incident in which resident SS missed a cycle of chemotherapy medication. The respondent investigated the incident by interviewing the nursing staff, including the claimant, and later moved to disciplinary proceedings based on comments the claimant made at the fact-finding meeting.

The tribunal found that the claimant made a series of admissions at the 16 July 2018 meeting, including that she had not read certain letters on SS's file, did not know the side-effects of the chemotherapy, was unclear about SS's condition, and did not read care plans for residents for whom she was not the named nurse. Although the claimant later said the meeting was fast-paced, aggressive, and that documents were waved in front of her, the tribunal preferred the contemporaneous notes and found that she was given the opportunity to respond. It held that the respondent was entitled to treat what she said as raising serious concerns and to continue to a disciplinary hearing.

Applying the constructive dismissal authorities it cited, including Western Excavating, Mahmud, Omilaju and GAB Robins, the tribunal held that the respondent had not committed a repudiatory breach of contract and had not acted in a manner calculated or likely to destroy trust and confidence. It rejected the claimant's complaints that the respondent pursued a case it knew to be false, refused to communicate properly, or unfairly handled the investigation, and it also rejected her criticism of the I-Care system. The offer to let her listen to the interview recording and review the relevant care plans and MAR charts was treated as a reasonable compromise. The tribunal therefore found that there was no dismissal within section 95(1)(c) ERA 1996 and dismissed the unfair dismissal claim.

The judgment records that the complaints of entitlement to a redundancy payment, holiday pay and arrears of pay were withdrawn. No monetary award was made.